Alta. invests in training doctors for rural practice in smaller cities

Alta. is looking for ways to train doctors in smaller cities in hopes they will be more likely to relieve a shortage of physicians in rural areas. The provincial government's providing $1 million to four post-secondary institutions to look for ways to train doctors in Grande Prairie and Lethbridge. The province has medical schools at universities in Edmonton and Calgary but the government says training doctors outside the big cities increases the odds of graduates practising in the province's smaller municipalities. The project will take six to eight years to show results.